Taking over the team in mid-flight, new coach Darryl Sutter might not be sure what to expect from the Kings on Thursday.

His counterpart, though, has an idea of what’s coming.

“I gotta believe they’ll play their best game of the year,” Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau said. “When they get a new coach, especially one with the reputation of being a tough taskmaster and an intimidator like Darryl is, they’ll put their best foot forward.”

That debut will come against a former teammate in Boudreau. The two played together in the AHL with New Brunswick and later in the NHL with Chicago. During his time with the Blackhawks, Sutter also played with Ducks general manager Bob Murray.

“He always had the Sutter ability to hate to lose, which was a great trait,” Boudreau said. “He’s competitive as all get out. I think the guys will find that right off the bat…They might not see how good a person he is, that side of him, for awhile, but he is a great guy.”

Sutter, the 24th coach in Kings history, is replacing Terry Murray. Sutter has been out of the NHL for almost a year. He was fired as Calgary’s general manager in December of 2010. He once coached the Flames, too, and also has coached in San Jose and Chicago.

“I think it’s where he belongs,” Boudreau of his old teammate returning to the bench. “He started out as a coach, and I think his forte is coaching. He’s got a great hockey mind. I think he’ll do great. I just don’t want him to do great against us.”

Among Boudreau’s players, Teemu Selanne knows the Kings’ new king very well, too. He played for Sutter with the Sharks.

“It’s going to be tough for those guys,” the veteran winger said. “He doesn’t let anything slide. I have a lot of respect for that coach.”

— In discussing his team’s continuing struggles, Selanne summed up the Ducks’ 0-3 trip by saying it put them back to “position zero again.”

The Ducks lost at Chicago, Winnipeg and Dallas before returning home. After playing at Staples Center on Thursday, they’re on the road again Monday at San Jose.

“We just do those same mistakes over and over and over,” Selanne said. “There’s so much hard work just going nowhere. We have to mix in the smartness also. We haven’t worked hard and smart at the same time. There’s a big difference.

“Everybody has to raise their level of play, find their level of play every night. If we do that and we still lose, then I give up. Then we’re in the wrong place, in the wrong league. But I know for sure that if all of us can say, ‘I had a good game tonight,’ that means we’re going to win a lot.”

— The question was about the Ducks’ road troubles and how much they’ve struggled away from Honda Center since…

“Since Oct. 27?” Boudreau said.

Precisely. That’s the last time the Ducks won on the road, 12 games ago. They are 0-9-3 since, including an overtime loss Nov. 1 against Washington, which, at the time, was being coached by Boudreau.

“It seems like we’re waiting for something bad to happen,” Boudreau said. “You know, you get into a 3-3 tie in your last time on the trip (in Dallas), you think you’d come out and just go all out. It looked like we were so tentative that we were either afraid to make a mistake or we were waiting for Dallas to score before we started to play.”

The Ducks trailed the Stars, 3-0, on Monday but came back with three consecutive goals to make it 3-3 entering the third period. Dallas then scored twice in the final 20 minutes to win, 5-3.

During their 12-game road winless streak, the Ducks have been outscored, 45-20.

“You can’t play tentative,” Boudreau said. “You can’t play…it’s like prevent defense. You’ve gotta play to win. We have to find something to turn it around. There’s an awful lot of road games left in this season.

“The one thing any athlete doesn’t want to be known as is a homer. They want to be known as guys who can play on the road. That’s something we have to change. We’re trying to find ways.”

— Veteran center Saku Koivu (groin) skated but did not practice and will not play Thursday. He hasn’t appeared in a game since Dec. 8, missing the past five.

Boudreau said he hoped Koivu could return before New Years. After playing the Kings, the Ducks have three games left in 2011 — Monday at San Jose, Dec. 29 against Vancouver and Dec. 31 against Colorado.

— Selanne’s nine-game point streak is the longest ever in NHL history by a player age 41 or older. The winger has three goals and 10 assists during the streak.

The previous high was eight games, held by Detroit’s Igor Larionov, who put together his stretch at age 42 in February of 2003.

Jeff Miller has been a sports columnist since 1998, having previously written for the Palm Beach Post, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald. He began at the Register in 1995 as beat writer for the Angels.

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